Preventing the spread of disease throughout a population is a significant problem. For example, in 2009 the world experienced the H1N1 flu virus pandemic during which the H1N1 flu virus quickly traversed states, countries and continents to infect persons throughout the world. Diseases such as the H1N1 flu virus are often spread from one person to another person by innate objects. For example, a person infected with a disease may cough into their hands, and then touch an innate object such as a door knob, thereby contaminating the door knob with disease causing germs. The hands of subsequent persons who touch that door knob will be contaminated with the disease-causing germs left on the door knob by the previous person, and may subsequently become sick as a result thereof.
Handheld instruments or tools, such as writing instruments, are another common vehicle for spreading disease-causing germs, such as the H1N1 virus. For example, a cashier working at a cash register of a grocery store may lend his or her pen to hundreds of different customers during a single day, each of whom may use the pen to sign a credit card receipt to pay for his or her respective groceries. Each person who touches the pen may contaminate the outer surface of the pen with disease-causing germs and/or become contaminated with disease-causing germs already present on the surface of the pen from a person who previously used the pen. Thus, handheld instruments such as pens have become common vehicles for spreading disease.
Recognizing that the surfaces of handheld instruments may be vehicles for passing diseases from one user to another, many individuals now carry liquid disinfectants. Individuals that use such liquid disinfectants typically dispense the disinfectant into the palm of one hand, and then spread the disinfectant over the entire surface of both hands by rubbing his or her hands together. Frequent use of such liquid disinfectants, however, may be undesirable because such disinfects can dry out and/or irritate the skin if used too frequently. Additionally, a user of such a liquid disinfectant typically uses a sufficient amount of disinfectant to disinfect his or her entire hands, even though only a small portion of a single hand may have become contaminated by touching a contaminated object.
An alternative approach to preventing the spread of disease through sharing handheld instruments is desired. Accordingly, what is desired is an apparatus for disinfecting handheld instruments. The apparatus may be used to repeatedly disinfect one or more handheld instruments by dispersing a disinfecting medium on a handheld instrument passed through the device. Optionally, the apparatus may include a well to hold the disinfectant, the well being refillable. In one embodiment, the apparatus may also wipe excess disinfectant from the handheld tool as it is disinfected.